When did you hit your stride?

Imagine my delight when I opened my Sunday paper and the magazine in which my column appears, popped out with Yumi on the cover. What a frock. And what’s that in her hair? Grey. Yumi, 35, chooses not to dye her hair. She likes the grey. The article itself was called “The Wonder Years” and featured interviews with Yumi and several other women about the age at which they have felt happiest, when they’ve felt like they’ve really got their shit together.

From Sunday Life:

Yumi Stynes, 35, refuses to dye her hair. She confesses she’s lied about her age in the past, “partly a female thing and partly a vanity thing”, but will not budge on the tell-tale long grey streak running through her almost black hair. “This shows I am a warrior! This is an indication of the life I have lived, of the scars I have acquired. Why would I deny myself those symbols? I am proud of who I am and what I have done.”

These are the words of a person who is profoundly glad to be right in the middle of her 30s, still youthful but not young. Stynes says she is happy in health, happiness, home and work. “The whole thing feels like it’s coming together.”

If Stynes seems incredibly content with where she is right now, she says it’s because, for the first time, she is taking responsibility for who she is. Turning 30 forced a sharp U-turn in the way she addressed problems, and the things she had agonised over in her 20s were suddenly within her control. “There was a real psychic shift around the age of 30, when I started taking more responsibility for myself. I thought, ‘I’m not going to whinge about the fact that I’m fat, I’m going to go to the gym. I’m not going to complain about my career, I’m going to see what I can do that I really enjoy.’ ”

(You can read the full article here)

I loved that. And I have to say I think I hit my stride a little later, in my mid 30s. I was so….rushed in my early 20s. So desperate to tick off a long list of Big Life Events faster faster faster. Of course, my train derailed fairly spectacularly a few times along the way and it wasn’t until my mid thirties, with some careeer and personal disasters behind me that I felt like I was where I wanted to be.

What about you…when did you hit your stride? Or are you still on your way? Are you where you thought you’d be at this age?